AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



Ariel of is almost our loveliest small bird, in the 

 the first flight with goldfinch, bullfinch, and the 



Streams harlequin stonechat. Through the Winter 

 the wagtail has been a chaste study, the upper 

 parts bluish-grey, the rump yellowish-olive, the throat 

 shading from white into oranges and yellows. Now the 

 male puts on his full nuptial plumage, and wears as love- 

 token a resplendent ebony gorget. There will soon be a 

 nest in tangled herbage under a ledge of the bank, for 

 it is his ambition to rear two broods, which shall enliven 

 our rocky streams by their sylph-like forms. 



ON park ponds the courting rites of the wildfowl now 

 make entertaining studies. " Coppernob," 

 Pond as the children call the pochard, circles 



Courtiers amorously round his darling duck. The 

 slender pintail drakes display their long 

 tail-feathers to enchantresses, who seem to take no 

 notice, only answering their soft " inward " courting 

 notes with harsh quacks; they are not always faithful 

 lovers, and will hybridize with the mallard. The little 

 black-tufted duck, with his jaunty crest and golden 

 eyes, utters piping notes, and the mallard bows cere- 

 moniously, and has the courting habit of up-tipping 

 himself in the water, with down-bent head and up- 

 thrown stern. Like other true lovers, the wild ducks 

 run into strange capers. 



PARTRIDGE pairs begin to scrape out little hollows for 

 their nests in meadow hedgebanks, though 

 Early the wise partridge waits for early May 



Partridge before laying, and June comes before the 

 Nests first hatchings rejoice the gamekeeper. 



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